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Number Of Black-Owned TV Stations Could Double

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. announced their plans to sell three FOX television stations to black media entrepreneur Pluria Marshall Jr. last Friday.

If the $58.5 million deal is approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it would nearly double the small number of full-powered African American-owned commercial television stations according to The Root.com.

‘We believe the proposed transaction announced today presents an ideal framework for introducing and incubating a new, minority-controlled entrant to broadcasting, and for bringing additional news, information and specialized programming to MBG’s markets at the earliest possible opportunity,” said Perry A. Sook, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.

The arrangement would require a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission. In March, the FCC voted 3-2 to bar so-called “shared services agreements,” in which one station provides services, such as selling advertising, for another.

However, the FCC ban included language to promote waivers for joint sales agreements that would encourage diversity in media ownership. Marshall has owned radio stations and newspaper properties.

His father, Pluria Marshall, is a co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and an activist who challenged broadcast licenses as chairman of the National Black Media Coalition in the 1970s.